In Chinese, the word for mistress is 小三. It's a word you'll encounter quite often in magazines and TV shows, so it might be worth remembering.

In today's elementary example, a lady unexpectedly answers the phone when Little Ming calls his dad. Could the father possibly be having an affair?

Hover over any word to show translation

“

mā ma

妈妈

媽媽

(informal) mother

，

bà ba

爸爸

爸爸

(informal) father

bù

不

不

(negative prefix), not

jiē

接

接

to receive, to answer (the phone)

diàn huà

电话

電話

telephone, phone call

。

shì

是

是

is, are

ge

个

個

classifier for people or objects in general

ā yí

阿姨

阿姨

aunt, woman of similar age to one's parents (term of address used by child)

jiē

接

接

to receive, to answer (the phone)

de

的

的

(used at the end of a declarative sentence for emphasis)

。”

méi xiǎng dào

没想到

沒想到

didn't expect

bà ba

爸爸

爸爸

(informal) father

yǒu

有

有

to have, there is

xiǎo sān

小三

小三

mistress, the other woman (coll.)

le

了

了

(completed action marker)

！

“Mom, dad didn't answer. It was a lady who answered.” Who would've thought that dad has a mistress!

Character set

Pinyin

Grammar points

In our second sentence we encounter a 是... 的 construction. This is used to emphasize that it was not the dad who answered, but a woman.
You can read more about this grammar structure on the Chinese Grammar Wiki.

This is the accompanying blog post for our elementary lesson "Having A Mistress".You can read the entire lesson for free using Du Chinese, available for iPhone and Android.Click here for more information.